I would hope this would discourage flippant behavior toward bombing targets in other countries but this just shows that we don't value human life these days. People in Pakistan have every right to be angry with us for constantly meddling in their affairs. We blatantly exploit their country and US officials probably expect them to be grateful. I can only hope that in the future we will focus more on domestic affairs than inserting ourselves into foreign territories and playing games that result in significant meaningless loss of life. In a democracy, there are few secrets within government, which makes the secret come out into the domain of the general public. The Senate and the House of Representatives cannot be kept in any shade of darkness, by the government of the United States. Hence, the general order of happenings in Afghanistan, is known to those who care to know, in the United States.

"People in Pakistan have every right to be angry with us for constantly meddling in their affairs."
'xcuse me Donna but it was poor poor Pakistan who harbored OBL, right under the nose of its military. It is also a fact that poor poor Pakistan is supporting the Taliban (and had created it, in fact). The poor innocent Pakis may play they dirty games if they want but shouldn't be surprised if sometimes they get a slap on their hand like mischievous children do. It is so damn easy to blame everything on the US. The US may not be a knight in shiny armor but Pakistani politics, and especially the ISI's dealings, are just plain sick and evil.

Where is the proof that Pakistan harboured OBL? Just because he was found in Pakistan does not mean that he had the support of the State of Pakistan. The US Government has repeatedly said that there is no proof to suggest that the Government of Pakistan was harbouring OBL.

Lets not get into the history because the US is equally responsible for supporting the leaders of Taliban in the 80's. Its quite laughable that the reason given for NATO's failure in Afghanistan is Pakistan. NATO still hasn't realized that to win a counter insurgency you need to win the hearts and minds of the people. Enriching corrupt Afghan officials and buying their loyalty wont win NATO any friends in Afghanistan. Every single civilian that NATO kills ensures that there are 10 volunteers to join the Taliban.

rubber duck.it was not Pakistan who requested your support.it was bloody America who interfered in the interior affairs of Pakistan.and it was pakistan who supported u the most in war of terrorism but what response you have given to pakistan you bloody well are killing our forces who are fighting with you in your war of terrorism.shame on you......

The "braking point" (last paragraph) is definitely near. What the U.S. senseless bombing of the Pakistani army posts, and the senseless bombing of Pakistani villages by drones does, is feed the flames of anti-American sentiment across the Muslim world. And that is not something temporary; it becomes the blood, the psyche, and the culture of people - very much like the hostility between India and Pakistan- that is passed on to the next generation and never fades away.

Pakistan's opposition leader Nawaz Sharif called the U.S. bombing of the Pakistani army posts "terrorism!" And the fact is that the U.S. has a "Wild West" policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan where "shoot first and ask questions later" has been common since 2001. And that creates more U.S. deadly enemies as the Muslim youths
seek to avenge the U.S. through suicide attacks and martyrdom!

The latest U.S.-Pakistani bloodshed would certainly put another nail in the U.S. coffin of the Afghan invasion and occupation, as it comes on top of a continuous U.S. murder and mayhem attacks on friendly forces and civilians on "suspicion" only. Here are a few examples: On May 29, 2010, the U.S. admitted to "bombing of 3 trucks loaded with Afghan civilians on a hunch that they might have been Taliban!" (L.A. Times, May 29, 2010) On April 18, 2009, the CIA described civilians killed in a Predator drone airstrike as "suspected terrorists, and assorted family members!!!!!" (New York Times, April 18, 2009) A CIA Predator drone airstrike on a Pakistani funeral procession killed 45 and injured 60 people! (AFP, June 24, 2009) The bombing of another funeral by the CIA killed 33 civilians. (CNN, November 5, 2008) A U.S. airstrike in Farah province killed 137 civilians, including 65 women, and 21 children. The U.S. called them "Taliban fighters!" (Reuters, May 26, 2009) (The German army in the area admitted they were civilians, and Germany paid compensation to their families)

There have been previous U.S. bombing of Pakistani army outposts, even though the U.S. has maps of their locations - according to Pakistani General Athar Abbas. But that doesn't matter because the U.S. military doctrine has been "if you are not sure a crowd or a congregation of people are friends, bomb them as "suspected terrorists and their assorted family members!" Such senseless killing has given a high fighting motivation to Muslim fighters across Afghanistan and Pakistan who are ready to die in order to force the bloody empire out! The people of Afghanistan and Pakistan have realized by now that the U.S. has turned their countries into "a human meat grinder" to avoid a military defeat!

The U.S. doctrine that "the more it kills, the closer it comes to victory," is, therefore, quite foolish - if not outright insane. Even its own generals and friends don't see that policy as sound. The U.S. General David Petraeus has admitted that " We cannot kill our way to victory in Afghanistan!" (Yahoo News, Online, Sept. 14, 2008), and the former British Foreign secretary David Miliband agreed: "The U.S. cannot kill its way out of all the threats it faces [in the world]." (The Guardian, Jan. 15, 2009)

If there is an Epilogue to the recent U.S. disastrous bombing of the Pakistani army outposts, it is this: Obama needs some new "sane" advisers - ASAP! Nikos Retsos, retired professor

"Within Pakistan, a breaking point could be near. One factor may be the rise of Imran Khan, a populist figure who makes a big deal of his opposition to America's role in the ongoing fighting. As important may be the rise of younger, more religious army officers who are instinctively more anti-American than previous generals."
There always been tension between the Middle East and the United States. Now Pakistan has been singled out. Lets hope that everything can get sorted out and the breaking point in Pakistan is resolved.

With several stand-offs in the past between the ruling establishment of Pakistan and the US, this latest one too will pass off soon, for neither the socially uprooted timid civilian leadership, that solely depends on the US for its survival against the ever present threat of army coup, as to be exemplified by the recent memogate affair, nor the Pakistan military, fattening on the US largesse, could ever afford to annoy their patron, though much hue and cry might be heard before things settle down to normal as usual.

It is very important for the United States to preserve their alliance with Pakistan. Without this alliance, the United States has a very few amount, if any, allies in the middle east. Pakistan provides the United States with a somewhat neutral place to fight the extremist terrorist groups.

The future of this alliance will come down to what measures the United States government uses to preserve the relationship and how well the Pakistani government accepts the United State's desire for continued alliance.

Although the U.S. is attempting to rely on Pakistan less in terms of anti-terrorist attacks, it is still prevalent how much the United States and NATO as a whole relies on this relationship. As the article concludes with, the fact that younger religious army officials of Pakistan, who are anti-American, are soon to rise to power emphasizes on the fact that the end of the NATO-Pakistani relationship may be near, especially after this recent "accidental bombing." 24 dead and 13 injured is no small accident and the reconciling that is going to have to be done in order to salvage this relationship is going to prove challenging.

This incident has only driven the U.S. and Pakistan relationship into further turmoil. The Relationship has never been a good one, as much as the U.S. is trying to help, the Pakistan's do not want us there. This attack will only reenforce their ill feelings toward the U.S. This is should also stand as a warning sign to the U.S. to stay out of foreign territories and maybe focus on internal or domestic affairs. This just shows that the U.S. efforts would possibly be more beneficial from afar instead of being directly involved which is resulting in the pointless loss of lives.

Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer. This is exactly what the US is going for. Just a short time ago, one of the higher ranked military officers for the US accused the Pakistan's of harboring and helping the Haqquii network of terrorists. Although Pakistan has a president, they are truly led by a military leader. Pakistan is building a nuclear arsenal. We are getting in too deep water if we have poor relations with Pakistan. We must do what we can to continue to keep some of the piece and avoid this NATO "miss hits."

People are predicting that this was the last straw for Pakistani relations with the US, which is certainly plausible, but I don't see them completely cutting off ties. As mentioned in the article they still rely on US for aid, and the recent floods in Pakistan solidify that need.

Shutting down the base where this drone flew out of makes sense, they need to tell the Pakistani people that they won't stand for the killing of their people, but I don't see them shutting out the US/NATO entirely.

It has been verified that Pakistani military personnel have been known to fire on American troops since the onset of the Afghanistan war. This is not news, just an escalation of hostilities that have been going for years in secret. It's a shame that the current US Presidential administration has to tip toe around this issue, when there is a large amount of evidence that suggests that Pakistan has been in a indirect war with the US for quite some time.

"A darker possibility is that the NATO officers who made the decision to attack, perhaps deeply frustrated by many years of active Pakistani support for Taliban and other fighters who kill Western forces in Afghanistan, were negligent or deliberate in striking the Pakistani armed forces along with their Taliban targets." This statement is very unthoughtful and simply unnecessary. NATO would not just fire at a countries soldiers that were letting them enter their country. Not sure why the U.S. is the only one getting most of the blame for this accident either...it was a NATO strike.

Killing soldiers of a third party is sickening, but, frankly, Pakistanis cannot claim their sovereignty is being violated when they are literally unable to monopolize violence within their own borders.

The relationship between the US and Pakistan was already worsening but this, according the the US and NATO, accidental killing will make the relationship take a turn for the worst. The US should not hurt their relations with Pakistan any further if they still want the benefits they get from being on good terms with Pakistan. They have to be especially careful now after the killings to make sure there are no mistakes like the recent killing of Pakistani soldiers.

It's only a matter of time before the relationship between the US and Pakistan crumbles, especially once these younger, more anti-American officers come into power in Pakistan. What makes this deterioration of the US-Pakistan relationship is that Pakistan has nuclear weapons. We need to strengthen relations with other nuclear powers with a lot of influence, like China and Russia.

@ heward124Nov 28th 2011 14:39 GMT
“It's only a matter of time before the relationship between the US and Pakistan crumbles, especially once these younger, more anti-American officers come into power in Pakistan. What makes this deterioration of the US-Pakistan relationship is that Pakistan has nuclear weapons. We need to strengthen relations with other nuclear powers with a lot of influence, like China and Russia.”
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But relax, the relationship between the US and Pakistan will not crumble because of this incident even if it was some deliberate attack.

The stake is just too high for both. Besides fighting terrorists, Pakistan is doing a credible job of keeping an eye on India for the US. And the neighborhood (read China, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh,…) isn’t exactly complaining about that job.

And India should not complain either, as Pak is in effect bearing the brunt and fending off terrorism for India.

Reading this I suddenly got a gut feeling of Pakistan sooner or later being wiped off the map in a nuclear inferno. I'm not advocating this, even less so hoping for this, I just had the feeling that Pakistan will be nuked in the future. By its own nukes, by India, by the US - I don't know but the feeling was so sure that it scared me. If so, not many tears will be shed.

The US/NATO attacks are another setback, to put it lightly, in a deteriorating relationship with Pakistan. Had this happened in the U.S. by Pakistan, I think they U.S. would have moved quickly to action. Nevertheless, the leadership in these countries must realize that it is in both of their best interests to remain peaceful during this time of war in the Middle East. 2011 has not been good for Pakistan and the U.S., and hopefully this will change in 2012.

Pakistan's military dictators need US money to buy boots and guns and food. Without US tax-payer money, the military will die. US needs Pakistan's military to suppress democracy in Pakistan. US Foreign policy is to suppress Democracy whenever it can result in an anti-Israel government, which shows the power Israel has over US Congress, but that's another story. So in summary, sick as it may sound, the US Government/CIA and the Pakistan Military need each other. They are lovers and this is just a lover's quarrel. Pakistan citizens and US citizens, of course, have no say in this sick relationship. It will continue.

With all the money and technology being fed into the military, "accidents" like this, where long-established army barracks were mistaken for Taliban activity, should not be happening. Making mistakes when people could die is not acceptable, no matter whose army it is or who the target is. I don't blame Pakistan at all for their anger.

Sure NATO screwed up, but how many times have they had to deal with attacks originating from within Pakistans borders? They were housing Osama near one of their military bases. Whether they knew this or not it shows that they are out of touch with their country at best, and at worst they have lost control of numerous aspects of their military. So yes it was a mistake for the bases to be attacked, but if i was a soldier on the front i would be just as careful about the Pakistanis as i would about the Taliban, preferring to know my enemy than to supposedly trust one.

It will be fascinating to find out (if we ever do) what exactly transpired. In any case, the relationship between the US and Pakistan will 'end' no matter what because of the impending US withdrawal from Pakistan. At that point Pakistan will face an entirely different strategic situation (more or less isolation from the west especially with regards to aid) and a struggle in Afghanistan which it will fight yet another proxy war through the Taliban against the Northern Alliance backed by India, Iran and Russia. The interesting question will be how China plays its cards: it obviously will re-emerge as Pakistan's biggest external supporter because of India but also cannot have an interest in seeing Afghanistan taken over by the Taliban. So, I suspect that the war will continue to the detriment of the long suffering Afghan civilian population. The effect of this perpetual war in Afghanistan on a increasingly isolated Pakistan will be to further strengthen the Islamic forces in Pakistan. The turbulence in South Asia, I suspect, is just beginning.